Just a Soldier
by yummychii
Summary: Teaming up with Kirito was a sure way to boost my survival. He was a beta-tester, someone who knew the game before the launch. I had a clear idea in what that meant - He was supposed to teach me how to stay alive and then we'd both say our farewells and never meet again. Instead, I found myself to be a permanent teammate to the beta-tester.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer : ****I do not own Sword Art Online, only the characters and the plot. I'm just abusing the system that Kawahara Reki made.**

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It was the sound of loud bell chimes and the disappearance of the brightly coloured checkered dome around the plaza at «The Town of Beginnings», along with the vanishing of the menacing figure and the panicking of the previously frozen players, was the start of what would later be known as «The Sword Art Online Incident».

All I could do was run before the panic truly set inー before everyone realised that we were trapped inside of this game with no way out other than reaching the 100th floor.

I highly doubted that Kayaba Akihiko, the genius creator of both the «NerveGear» and «Sword Art Online», had been lying when he had showed us the news about the 213 now-dead players.

And while I wanted nothing more than to sit and wait for somebody to save me, my instincts screamed at me to _save myself_. The demands of it were louder than my fears, and it prompted my legs to carry me away from the players to find a way to get stronger.

It would be extremely ridiculous to wait for the authority to do something about the situation. There was _no way_ Kayaba Akihiko hadn't implemented countermeasures for any outside prodding.

He made it very clear that this world was going to be our reality, and that dying in it meant certain death _outside._

This was supposed to be a normal and fun game to play with one of my friends, and I couldn't help but silently thank every lucky star he had since he didn't log in because of his job. But at the same time, I cursed the fact that I might be alone in this hell-hole.

It was horrifying, not seeing anyone familiar in a sea full of terrified screaming with the weight of my very own life on my shoulders.

I really didn't want to end up like those 213 players.

I tightly closed my eyes for a moment, silently praying that my roommate had seen the news so she wouldn't unplug the NerveGear in her blind need for food.

It was my turn to cook today… _had been_ my turn, and we gave each other mild punishments for not doing even one of the chores we were designed to do for the day. Her unplugging the machine wasn't a faraway scenario.

A whispered prayer escaped my throat.

… If I wanted to go back. _I had to stay alive_. I didn't want to die before I could at least make one of my dreams come true, or before I told my parents that I wanted to branch out from our restaurant and make my own name in the cooking world.

This was the second reason why I couldn't stay in the «Town of Beginnings». I had to _do something._ Or I'd never forgive myself for giving up.

A lot of people were going to do just that, judging from the defeated looks that pleadingly looked at me when I ran away from the plaza, even when the self-proclaimed god of this world had given us a reason to abandon safety and _'live'_.

" _All players still alive at the time the final boss is defeated will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you my word."_

I just hoped the carrot he'd dangled in front of our faces had been enough motivation for the other players to become stronger and beat their way up to the 100th floor of this enormous castle.

The metaphorical orange vegetable surely worked on me.

I wiped away my tears that blurred my vision and rounded the corner where I'd seen two players run to with a few quick strides. I peered into the alley, careful of not giving myself away, and watched as one of the players, (a black haired teen that had soft looking features with sharp, black eyes), spoke to the other one, (who had a distinct bandana tied around his red hair. I couldn't see his facial features, only his back.), in a hushed, boyish voice.

For a moment I wondered what I was doing following what looked like a middle-schooler and his older friend. I paused, contemplating if this was a wise decision, before I exhaled a breath and focused back on them.

No chickening out yet. I could panic after I'd secured my survival ticket.

And the ticket was… _him_.

My luck shined when I caught sight of the black haired player's urgent self leaving the plaza, and how quickly he pulled the red haired man away from the panicking crowd. If he hadn't bumped into me and jolted me out of my frozen stupor, I would have personally tried my best imitation of a headless-chicken run.

But really, the urgency only meant one thingー he knew his way around the game, and _that_ was why he was a winning survival ticket.

I strained my ears and tried to listen to their whispered conversation. I furrowed my eyebrows when I heard _'battle for resources'_ , _'going to the next village'_ , and the most important thing that made me almost expose myself with a sigh of relief, _'I know the way and all the dangerous spots'_.

That sentence alone was enough for me to make up my mind and step out of my hiding spot with my a clenched jaw and shoulders squared in pure determination.

"Please let me join you!" I exclaimed as confidently as I could muster, making my back a perfect line while bowing.

"Huh?" one of them choked out in confusion. His voice sounded a bit scratchy, so it must have been the older player. I raised my chin and acknowledged him with a glance before I looked straight at the younger player.

"Please take me with you," I repeated, still trying to keep my voice as even as possible. I clutched my hands together.

"Please consider taking me with you. I promise I won't be a pain." I repeated, slinking back into a deep bow.

The uncomfortable silence was expected, and I squished my guilty consciousness before it was too much for me to handle. It was true that I was pressuring him into allowing me to join, but I couldn't afford letting things like that pull me away from my ticket out. If I listened to it now, I'd turn back to the «Black Iron Palace» and curled up in one of its corners forever.

"Ah! Looks like you're in demand, Kirito!" the red haired man grinned, sounding friendly as he clapped the boy's shoulder. The boy looked mildly annoyed at him, but he caught my stare and went straight back to looking awkward, like he didn't know if he should turn me down or run away without giving me a proper reply.

"You could join my guild, you know. We'd take good care of ya!" the older player said with a broad smile before the black haired teen could say anything. I smiled as politely as possible while I slowly shook my head.

"I'm really sorry, but I'm not sure I can be around a lot of players after…" I muttered, going back to my full height with my hands in front of me.

"Oh, no! I completely understand," the older player flailed his arms around at my expression, and he quickly looped an arm around the younger teen's shoulders, looking sheepishly apologetic at me. "I'm sure Kirito can help more anyways!"

Unsurprisingly, the teen, ' _Kirito_ ', furrowed his eyebrows in an instant.

"... I haven't agreed to any of this." he muttered, but the man smiled down at him.

"Why not, Kirito? You were the one who said it'll be dangerous, so it won't hurt you to have someone protect your back."

 _How dangerous is dangerous…?_ I thought, trying to tame the shudder of fear that chilled my core.

"Who said you can invite anyone with me…?" the teen muttered.

"IーI don't care if it is, though!" I exclaimed, bowing yet again, but not as deeply as earlier.

"Who said _I_ don't?" he asked, still frowning.

"You can't deny it's better! Come on, Kirito, I'll worry less if someone goes with you."

The teen sighed lowly before he turned on his heel and walked away from us. I looked in confusion at the red haired player. He shook his head with pinched eyebrows.

"I think that's an okay in Kirito-speech?" he jokingly said, taking a few steps back.

"...HーHuh? Really?" I blinked, staring at the younger teen's back.

"We've wasted enough time. The beta players will go to the next village like us. We have to hurry." he informed in a formal tone, looking over his shoulder. I couldn't help but smile in relief.

"I'll see you again, Kirito!" the red haired man exclaimed, waving, before he lowered his voice. "You can join my guild any time, just message me."

"Oh...Thank you, and… Sorry for eavesdropping. What's your name?" I asked, glancing to see Kirito as he went back to walking out of the alley.

"Focus on the health bar," he said with a grin. "Let's meet again soon!"

"Yeah. See you later… Klein-san."

With a nod, I caught up to the teen before I hesitated and looked back at Klein. I was sure the red haired man was the only reason Kirito didn't give me too many arguments about why I shouldn't join him on his dangerous adventure. I gave the man a last wave and turned back to the blackette.

"TーThank you for agreeing." I said in the tense silence before Kirito and I passed the east gates leading towards the «Origin Plains», where I'd killed a few «Frenzy Boars» and «Stinging Wasps» to see how well I could fare in this game.

"... No problem."

With that said, Kirito took off in a sprint. He pushed through the grasslands with unbelievable speed. It left me dumbfounded for a second before I leapt into action, wryly running across the plains and watching for any ambushes.

This part had a lot of low level monsters on the man-made route leading towards the next area, most likely. These kind of routes were common in Role-Playing-Gamesー I only knew that because I spent most of my middle and high school years playing them and driving my parents insane and practically my whole family insane.

That was the period where I didn't know I had a vicious passion for cooking and that my future dream would be running a café of my own. I only realised it when I started living with Mitsuki, my roommate, on my first year of university. I knew how to cook before, but feeding Mitsuki and personally witnessing how joyful she became because of my food made me, in turn, happier than when I worked for my parents.

I stumbled away from the rocky route when an unfortunate «Frenzy Boar» decided to casually walk in front of the blackette, whose hand already unsheathed the strapped sword on his back. Before I could take any action, Kirito's weapon flashed bright blue, and the boar was killed not a second after.

How did he do that? Was that one of the main attractions of SAO, a «Sword Skill»?

I wasn't a beta tester, and the only knowledge I could use was collected from both being a former-gamer, along with the long rants about bosses and quests some of the beta players had written.

… But I didn't really know how reliable that information was at the moment, since even mobage sometimes changed after the closed beta period.

I hoped Kirito was nice enough to teach me how to do a sword skill, though. I only knew how to slash my beginner sword, currently.

As if sensing that my thoughts wandered towards him, Kirito glanced at me before he jumped through the thousand fragments of lights, and I ran even faster than before. He took the left route when the road split, and I skid into an abrupt halt and tried changing my direction as smoothly as possible.

Since he had to slow down so he wouldn't fall from the tree roots that infested the grassy grounds, I was finally able to catch up, running an arm away from him so we wouldn't cause each other to trip and take fall damage.

Trust me, that was a thing.

"Kirito… san, where are we going?" I asked. He spared me a glance before he jumped over another root.

"Horunka. It's a small village with an Inn and some shops. We'll reach it soon at this rate."

As the sky was becoming a brilliant orange, I saw some buildings in the distance. The teen was true to his words as the more we ran, the bigger the gates of «Horunka Village» became.

I frowned in thought. If anyone decided to follow us, they'd be able to do so easily since it wasn't that far from the «Town of Beginnings». So it was just like he'd said before we left the city; we had to be quick.

Mentally noting that the teen was honest even when he was being pushed into something he obviously didn't want to do, we moved past the gates and entered the village.

It was indeed small. When I counted the buildings while we walked through the NPC-filled streets, there were only about ten. The cursors on top of the non-players distracted me from any further surveillance, and I caught a glimpse of an exclamation mark on top of a boy not too far away from what looked like a giant platform holding an unlit crystal in the middle of it.

The music of the village flowed into my ears as soon as we passed some guards, but it was faint enough for me to instantly forget about it and go back to focusing on my surroundings.

"There aren't any players here yet, huh?" I quipped, and Kirito, who was eyeing a shop with two swords and a shield drawn on its sign, nodded after an obvious pause.

"Yeah. It's only as expected since we didn't idle around after the tutorial." he answered before he hurriedly went towards what looked to be a stand selling weapons and armour. I eyed the many goods that were on the shelves under the huge brown tent.

Wasn't it normal to buy weapons first? It didn't seem like they were on Kirito's mind, though, because he went through some menu tabs and bought a brown leather armour. He tapped a few things until his blue beginner armour shone with an unearthly light as it transformed into his new gear.

I decided to follow suit, but bit the insides of my cheek when I noticed how many «Cols» I had left. It wasn't much, since I used a fair amount when I started playing to change out of my beginner gear. I could, _maybe_ , afford a cheap armour and a new weapon, but only if the weapon was of average quality.

A sleeveless leather armour, that was light brown, caught my eyes. It looked a bit worn out, but that was understandable since its price wasn't high, _but_ it gave a buff for HP. I had to forget about any decent weapons if I was going to buy this, though. But Kirito hadn't bought a weapon… so he probably had a plan.

Trusting his decision, I tapped on the instant equip as well.

I shifted on my feet as the shimmering lights on my person started dimming, and I busied myself by staring at Kirito, who was looking at a window in his menu again, which I assumed was the main avatar screen, fully ignoring how he was dressed in tight armour, also.

The thought that my status menu had an avatar that looked exactly like my real life body made me insanely uncomfortable, and I didn't really want to acknowledge that I was forced to play as myself in this game, and not the body I'd made before logging in.

In the real world, I had a choice of going out and be seen by people, and I had a choice of what I looked like in any mmorpg worlds I played. But I was stripped away from both things, which was the main reason why I felt uneasy.

"... It's… me…" I heard Kirito mutter, but I didn't pry. Instead, I turned to the weapon section of the shop, but a sudden tug on my arm held me back.

"Wha—?"

"Don't. The weapons here won't have much durability, and will break from the mob grinding we're going to do," he said, letting go of the white shirt that I was now wearing beneath the leather armour. "Let's just buy potions and antidotes from the tools shop with the remaining Col."

I flushed as I nodded in agreement.

If I wasn't with him, Kirito would have done all of those things without someone slowing him down, without wasting his time on explaining the game to a newbie like me. I might be lowering his survival chances, along with mine. But I didn't voice my thoughts, and followed him to the item shop.

I really needed to find a way to repay him…

"All right, I'm out of Col." he announced, putting some potions and antidotes into his pouch, which was just another game mechanic, «Quick Item». Everything inside of the pouch could be used almost instantly.

"Me too." I offered him an awkward smile, which he returned before he motioned for me to follow him out.

From the item shop, we walked around the village into a narrow alley, and Kirito opened the door to one of the surrounding buildings at the end of it.

I wanted to stop him for trespassing before I remembered that Kirito was a beta tester, so that meant the house most likely had a quest inside. Which made me have conflicted feelings, since barging into homes wasn't a crime anymore. That was… disturbing more than anything. The laws in the real world weren't the same as the laws in this world. Not anymore.

"Oh, yeah," Kirito muttered, stepping back from the building. He took a deep breath and opened his menu, and tapped a couple more tabs. I raised my gaze skywards, waiting for him to finish as I scruffed my shoe on the ground.

A loud ping almost made me jump back in surprise. I stared at the floating notification before I wryly read it.

"I'm not sure if this will work with us in a… party," Kirito said, rubbing the back of his neck. "We'll do the quest twice if it doesn't."

"QーQuest?" I repeated, wiggling my fingers towards ' _Accept_ '.

The interface that was in the corner of my vision suddenly got bigger, and I could see Kirito's name in front of me before it went under mine.

 _Being in a party makes it seem like his life is in my hands now, too_ , I thought, swallowing thickly.

"Follow me."

Upon entering the door, we found a woman stirring a pot in a kitchen that was connected to the room we were in. Going by the green cursor floating over her head, the woman was an NPC. She was thinー Too thin compared to the non-players outside, with her baggy, worn-out old dress. She was focused on cooking to the point where she'd only noticed our entry when the door behind us closed with a resounding click.

Other than the cursor, there was nothing else that could get me to think that she wasn't a real life woman.

It scared the hell out of me.

I slipped closer to Kirito, still eyeing the woman, who gave us a small, sad smile while putting away the wooden spoon on the nearby table.

"Good evening, journeying swordsmen. You must be tired. I do wish to offer you some food, but I do not have any at the moment. All I can give is a cup of water."

I jerked in surprise when she talked, then I stared wide eyed as the beta tester answered her, as if he was talking to a real person.

"That will be fine."

Walking over to us with a smile of relief, she poured water into two cracked cups from a worn out jug. They clinked when she sat them down on the wooden table before us. Kirito took a seat, then grabbed the cup and chugged down the water in one gulp. I tentatively did the same after I sat next to him, since the NPC kept staring at me and went back to stirring the pot only after I finished my cup.

"Does this mean it's a team quest?" I whispered, playing with the sleeves of my tunic.

"Yeah. It was one of the special quests in the beta. It should give us a nice push in our levels and a nice weapon… We'll have to bring back an Ocules with us. That's the quest item." he explained, and I nodded, relaxing into my chair.

"... Is the drop rate low? Y'know, since it's special," I asked again after a moment just for the sake of filling the silence.

While I knew almost nothing about _this_ game, I knew how typical RPGs worked. But I _really_ had to make it up for him somehow whenever possible, since he was answering any question I shot at him in earnest honesty.

"It's lower than 1%, but the drop rate raises the more we kill the Small Nepenthes. Partying usually raises luck too, so we can get one before the end of the day if we grind enough, hopefully," he shrugged, leaning his weight on the armchair.

Once again, I nodded to show that I heard him, not really knowing what to say.

I sighed loudly after _another_ moment of tense silence, and I propped my chin on my closed fists.

"... Look, Kirito-san," I said, intently staring at the woman, not having enough courage to look at the teen. "I'm really sorry for pressuring you into allowing me to join you. I owe you. _A lot_. I might be a burden, since I know nothing about the game," Kirito's eyes widened while his lips parted, getting ready to retaliate, but I didn't give him any room to and continued, "But I really do hope we get along and become friends. Let's grow stronger together until the end of this quest!"

"It's notー" he stopped, then his face turned serious. "To be honest, I'm a bit nervous. This place is dangerous for level-one players, yet I dragged you with me when I could have firmly said no," he confessed, and I could see the guilt dancing in his eyes.

"I could have turned my back when you've mentioned that it's dangerous," I pointed out. "Really though, I'm sure we'll complete this quest if we stick together, even though I still have a lot to learn."

"Yeah… I guess we'll watch each other's backs until the end of this quest."

Before I could say anything else, the sound of coughing came from one of the rooms. The despair the NPC showed when that happened, from the slump of her shoulders, her paling skin and the slight tears in her eyes, made me tense up again. A few seconds of silence passed until a golden question mark lit up above the woman's head.

"Is something troubling you?" Kirito inquired as soon as the hovering mark stopped spinning. I filed the phrases he'd said for later use, since they appeared to be the vocal confirmation for these kind of quests.

She turned to us, the despaired look still there, but her eyes were now shining in a hopeful light.

"Actually, journeying swordsmen, my daughter has caught an illness…"

She told us about how the illness couldn't be treated by normal medicine, and that the only cure was a flower on a plant monster in the forest. The flower could be grinded to make the actual cure, but getting it was hard, almost impossible for just anyone to find.

The small coughs that accompanied the storytelling actually made me sympathetic for the little family. The NPC didn't mention anything about the rewards, though, and I wondered if it was a trick from the game to make players turn their back on this quest to do something better with their times.

"The area should be around the village since it's called «Horunka Forest», right?" I unnecessarily asked, yet again for the sake of filling the silence as I accepted the quest when the pop-up appeared in front of me.

"Yes, so let's go."

We headed to the forest shortly after leaving the house, my eyes drifting towards the map on the upper right corner of my eyes for navigations every once in a while.

It was late in the evening, so the only things illuminating out way were the pale blue lights attached to the ceiling of the first floor, which was the bottom of the second. While they somewhat helped, it wasn't as much as having the sun shining through the forest and showing us where we were stepping. I had to pay extra attention to where I was going or else I would get smacked around by random branches.

"I'm going to pick the Searching skill to find what we're looking for. I think you should raise the Hiding skill in the meanwhile. But, be careful. The monsters don't use their sights to pinpoint enemies. It won't hurt to raise it while you can."

"I'll do that," I enthusiastically nodded, happy about whatever advice he was dishing out for me.

"Aim your attacks where I do," he said,"That'll speed things up."

"All right. I'll be right behind you, Kirito-san."

He nodded, and I equipped Hiding in my skill slot after being told where the tab for it was. I blinked when a floating button appeared at the right side of my vision.

Not being brave enough to press it without knowing what it was, I glanced at the younger teen.

"Uhm… Kirito-san?" I chewed on my inner cheek as he hummed in question. "What does this do?"

 _Can he even see it?_

"It's the shortcut for the Hiding skill. It only appears when you have the hiding skill equipped in the skill slot. You'll have to go to the skill tab to activate it otherwise." he simply answered before he turned back to looking at his windows.

Muttering a thank you, I tentatively touched the button with my index finger. A new option came up in an instant at the bottom of my view and I focused on it. The little furigana on top of the kanji read as «Hide Rate», which was what the new indicator should be called between players.

"Does the hide rate tell us… how well we're hidden?" I said to make sure I understood what the new option did.

"Yeah. It highly depends on your clothes colour and the environment."

I experimentally crouched down after a nod and watched as the indicator filled up.

"Let's go, then?" I said, my eyes widening when the rate shot to its lowest levels, but didn't disappear. I sighed in relief and balanced my weight on one foot so I could lower myself even more, then I looked expectantly at Kirito.

Without stalling any further, the teen took a deep breath and made his first few steps through the forest. Knowing that Kirito would warn me if there was a monster nearby, since he had his search skill on, I intently watched where I was stepping while following the younger teen.

A ping resounded in my ears and I stopped, staring at the small, square notification on the left side of my field of vision. I slowly tapped it, and a pop-up appeared in front of me. It said that my hiding skill leveled up, (it was 2/1000, which made my eyes almost roll back into my head. That was _a lot._ )

The notification didn't entirely surprise me though, since the first levels were always the easiest to pass.

Kirito suddenly raised his hand before he hid behind one of the trees and motioned for me to come closed.

"It's there," he said when I was within earshot. "The attack pattern is simple. See those vines it's dragging behind it?"

I peaked at the mutilated plant. Focusing on the monster made everything suddenly come into details. I had to rapidly blink at the change, the action making everything go back to normal. I tried again while fully expecting my new tunnel-like sight. I gulped down my fright at being able to see every little detail the monster possessed.

It was a huge, green, hideous thing that was covered in some kind of pattern. Kirito said its vines were used as weapons, which was making me slightly regret my decision of going with him, because they looked long enough to wrap around players and throw them around with terrifying ease.

No wonder Kirito wanted to level up his search skill. The monster's body made it very easy for it to bleed into its surroundings and ambush players.

A glint made me look at the centre of the plant, and I couldn't help but let out a tiny squeak at the huge mouth filled with pointy, sharp teeth. _Just what had I gotten myself into_ _ー_

"It'll use the vines like daggers, slashing at us. It can also spit out acid from its mouth, " Kirito continued on, not noticing my brewing fear. "But that's what makes it easy to hunt. We'll win as long as we don't get hit. We just have to keep attacking it."

"Okay," I whispered, closing my eyes for a moment to regain a semblance of composure. "We can do it. Hit and dodge, yeah?"

If I remembered correctly, the darker the shade of the red cursor was, the stronger the enemy would be, and the cursor on top of the monster clearly said that this monster was _way_ above our levels.

I had to keep my focus even more starting now. This was a life or death situation, and I refused to die by the hands of my own lack of intelligence!

With a tight grip, I unsheathed my beginner's sword, Kirito doing the same almost at the same time as me. I experimented with the weight of the weapon, bouncing it up and down, and looked at the black haired teen. He gave me a nod before he pushed himself off the tree and charged, with me following shortly behind him. My steps faltered when the plant took notice of us and let out a loud, ugly roar and counter-attacked Kirito's slash with one of its whips, which forced him to leap away from the plant.

While it was recovering from its attack, I clenched my teeth and slashed at its roots in an uncomfortable angle. My grip didn't feel right, so I took the moment, where the plant moved away from us, to change how I held my sword, trying to replicate how Kirito held his. While the weight still made me try and distribute my balance on my feet and hunch slightly forward, the grip on it felt correct, and the weapon didn't feel like it was going to fall if I attacked incorrectly.

 _I look like a pro,_ I mused as I glanced at my boots and then quickly went back to staring at the monster. My centre of gravity was low enough for me to dodge or attack at any given moment!

But my confident pose wouldn't trick veteran players for sure.

The obvious shake of my frame gave away how I actually felt. I tried not to give it any mind and be mindful of where I was stepping when I had to jump away from an attack directed right at me. I circled the monster as soon as it didn't feel like I was going to fall, stepping closer to the waiting Kirito in tense silence.

Mutilated plants weren't supposed to be on my kill-list today. I'd only defeated a couple of monsters that were just outside The Town of beginnings without using sword skills, and just experimented with different forms and tried to replicate things I'd seen only on my computer screen.

The only difference was that, I thought that it was okay not to know how to do skills back then and only have fun, whole right t this moment I had to forcibly push all of my fears away and try my hardest to learn everything as quickly as possible so I could _survive_.

I glanced at Kirito to study his stance some moreー

ーOnly to notice the shadow of the plant's vine as it came flying towards us. Unsurprisingly, Kirito dove away from the attack, but I wasn't fast enough to dodge it. I could only raise my sword as a mock-shield.

" _Heishi!_ "

When the attack connected to my weapon, I flew back into a tree. I gasped in surprise at the pain that coursed through my back. My breathing became fast and heavy as my unfocused eyes tried pinpointing where the monster was while my trembling hands felt around for my weapon.

"Hereー and get up!"

A cold bottle was pressed into my open palm and I scrambling up to my feet while popping open the led and pouring the liquid into my mouth. Swallowing the red liquid, I quickly hid behind a tree to take a second and calm myself down.

The mutilated plant's pained scream was what snapped me out of it, and I grit my teeth before rounding the tree. I was behind the monster now, and my right hand flew towards the hilt of my sword before I let out a war-cry as I slashed down, producing a red gash on the enemy's body.

Leaving Kirito to deal with it alone while I cowered in fear was _not_ the answer to every single problem in this world.

The plant looked angry, twisting itself to growl menacingly at me. One glance at its HP and most of my fear turned into motivation to finish this fight.

Its health was down to sixty-five percent, and I told myself that I had to follow Kirito's attack pattern so I could start being helpful.

… But that was easier said than done in the middle of a heated battle.

The pitcher under the mutilated monster's mouth rapidly inflated, reminding me of the acid fluids I was warned about earlier. I watched as it filled its mouth until some of it escaped and dripped down on the grass, burning it upon contact. I held in my breath when it turned to my left, alerting me that it was aiming for a tense Kirito.

When a loud spitting noise echoed throughout the area, I took the opportunity of the monster's stillness while it launched its attack to slash at its side. Kirito emerged from the left and his arm went down to hit the same spot I had aimed at.

Kirito was too off-balanced to dodge the whip that came flying towards him, and my hand quickly wrapped around the back of his shirt. I pulled him away from the attack and rolled us on the ground. My eyes momentarily spun, but I got up in an instant and ran towards the monster and attacked one of its root-y legs.

The hit toppled the plant to the side, much to my absolute joy. Its oversized body jerked around, as if it was shocked by electricity. Kirito attacked it again with newfound speed, letting out a cry while his sword flashed a bright blue. I stared at the execution of the sword skill as his sword vertically traveled towards the plant, finally dropping the HP to critical levels. I scrambled up and took the same stance, with my legs wide apart and my sword above my shoulder. Sure enough, it gave off the same light, and I felt like something was telling physically guiding me through the correct steps of the skill.

Using a sword skill was truly a weird experience, I'd just found out.

With another sword skill and two last hits, the plant burnt into tiny, multiple fragments of light.

"We did it!" I couldn't help but gush. The battle rush was still there, making me giddy with both happiness and adrenaline. Kirito sighed in relief before grinning at me.

"Let's continue hunting. At this rate, we'll gain a lot of levels in no time."

"Lead the way."

We spent a bit of time tag-teaming lone Nepenthes. It was obvious that using both sword skills and normal attacks was becoming a little easier, but I was happier that the tension between Kirito and I slowly melted away. I could feel myself becoming more at ease around the young teen, and the fact that the air between us was getting better relieved me.

"Hm?" I hummed in confusion after we took safety in a bunch of green bushes. "Is that… a fruit?"

Kirito slipped his hands through the plants and peeked through the leafy window he made and said,

"That's a Nepent with a seed," he frowned, "We can try and kill it, but we need to be extra careful. If we accidentally hit the seed, it'll call for other Nepenthes."

"' _Call'_ how many, exactly?" I asked, biting my inner cheek. Kirito visibly grimaced.

"Between ten to twenty," he whispered before he shook his head. "I think we should stay on the safe side and avoid it."

"Yeah… we can't tank that many at once at our current levels." I agreed, slowly slipping back into the bush.

"... I was wondering," Kirito said when the enemy name disappeared from our view. "Have you played online before? You seem familiar with gaming terms."

I sheepishly laughed as I rubbed the back of my head. "Ah, yeah. A few years back."

"That's better than being new to gaming, I guess." he shrugged, his eye drifting to the right. "We really ought to hurry. The players might be here at any hour."

With a nod, I followed him as he went back to surveying the area, most likely in search for any Nepenthes.

When we found two of them roaming around, I tapped Kirito's shoulder and whispered, "We can lure one with a hit and run?"

"That won't work," he said with a shake of his head, his eyes hardening. "If we attack, the other Nepenthes will notice. They're too close to each other."

I didn't think I was ready to solo one while Kirito killed the other, but I was willing to try. Though, looking at them again, I dismissed the idea. I could try that later when we were safer and higher leveled than one.

"Should we find a roaming one?" I pitched in, anxiously rubbing my hands on my legs. Kirito pinched his chin in thought.

"That'll take a longer time. The ones we killed will take a little while to respawn," he sighed before he stared at me. I tried not to squirm at his gaze, keeping in mind that I shouldn't feel uncomfortable because of someone who was most likely younger than me.

"... Do you think you're up for soloing a Nepenthes?" he asked in a careful tone, and I instantly tucked my head to my chest.

… Damn it, now I couldn't avoid it.

"Any more advice?" I said, voice weak. Kirito cracked a reassuring smile and patted my shoulder.

"Try to stay alert. Don't let it sneak up on you and you'll be fine. Dodge and attack."

"Dodge and attack. Okay. I'm ready." I said, taking a deep breath while nodding.

"Together on the count of three," Kirito whispered, brandishing his weapon. I shakily gripped mine, but tried to relax myself into a more natural pose.

"3… 2… _1…_ "

I put my weight on my right foot and leaned forward, bringing my sword over my shoulder. In a mere second, it glowed with the indication that the sword skill was being activated.

"Go!"

The hesitation that I felt didn't stop me from jumping at the right Nepent while my temporary teammate lept towards the left one. I let go of my body as the Skill System guided me into the steps of the vertical slash, unleashing it on the body of the monster to deal enough damage for it to lose complete interest in the teen.

With a grunt, I waited for the monster to finish wailing in pain, which was a good thing for me since I couldn't move yet. Using a skill made me freeze right after for a few precious seconds, I figured out earlier.

I didn't glance at Kirito, knowing that I would be tempting my luck if I did that in the middle of battle, as evident of when we first started searching for «The One With a Flower». I grit my teeth and lept into action.

Dodge, slash, _get hit_ , get up, drink potion, attack, dodge, attack, _dodge, attack!_

On and on went my combo, going for more than ten minutes until Kirito had to pitch in and help me finish it off. I was panting by the time it vanished into broken fragments, and just as suddenly, I was wrapped in a bright orange light. I bit back a scream that was held in by a quick glance at Kirito, who looked relieved more than anything.

My breath escaped me in one exhale as I noticed a pop-up window that congratulated me on a level up. It was pleasantly surprising to read that I got three new status points.

I patted Kirito's shoulder with a huge, relieved grin playing on my lips.

"We leveled up! Congrats."

When Kirito made a weird noise, I quickly retracted my hand, awkwardly letting it settle back to my side.

"Um, yeah. Congrats."

That brought back the tension I was sure I learned how to ignore by now. For a few seconds, we were both silent, and I busied myself by fiddling with my status menu. I frowned when I saw that I could allocate three status points.

I had no idea what to strengthen.

Before I could ask, echoing claps came from behind us. I whirled around, eyes fearfully jumping left and right to try in search for the sound. I tightly gripped my sword with shaking hands, wondering who, exactly, would announce their presence this way.

My question was answered with the shape of a humanoid shadow. It broke out of the trees, and I felt the muscles on my back tensing. The shadow came closer and closer… and out came a brown haired player, whose mouth was slightly agape in awe. My fear turned into confusion, but I allowed myself to relax as Kirito dropped his hand away from his own weapon.

"S—Sorry, for startling you like that. I should have called out from the start."

The player's small smile was the only thing that made me feel like he was actually sorry, and I sighed beneath my breath.

"... No, me too… sorry for the overreaction." Kirito mumbled, stuffing a hand into his pocket.

"Yeah…"

Since this game became a situation where my life could be ended at any moment by anything and _anyone,_ I knew it was bad not to trust players at all. I remembered how desperate I'd been to join a beta player and how Kirito had agreed to help me, which made me smile at the player in politeness and wonder if he needed help, too.

 _But he came here… alone. He's a beta tester too, from the looks or it,_ the logical part in my brain whispered, and I slowly dropped my smile, but still tried to look friendly.

The boy brought up a hand, as if he was going to adjust his glasses, and then he lowered it in embarrassment.

"C—Congrats, on your level up. That was pretty quick." the boy said, and I looked at Kirito, who shrugged.

"It's not that fast… —And if you are going to say that, you're fast too. I thought it would be an hour or two before anyone reached this forest."

The boy laughed. "I thought I would be the first to arrive too. The path to get here is rather confusing, after all."

And with that, I confirmed my suspicions. This boy was a tester, just like Kirito. When I looked closer, I noticed how he still had the same sword Kirito and I did, which further proved my little theory.

"You're doing it too, right? «The Secret Medicine of the Forest»."

I hesitated before I nodded, lacing my fingers together. I wondered if he wanted to join our party to raise the drop rate of the quest item, that'd help since he probably knew how to fight too.

"That's an indispensable quest to one handed sword users, after all. When you get that Anneal Blade, it's good all the way till the third floor labyrinth." the new player said, smiling enthusiastically.

"... The appearance isn't much to talk about though, that weapon." Kirito joked, or at least, tried to. I couldn't laugh at his humour since I'd never seen that sword, so I didn't know how ugly it actually looked like.

"This is a rare chance, so how about working together on the quest?"

Kirito pursed his lips and the boy smiled.

"The rate of a «One With a Flower» will increase if the normal ones get hunted down as much as possible. Pushing that to the extremes as a three person team will be effective."

Kirito looked uncomfortable. I didn't think he wanted to add the player to our party, so I sighed to break the silence.

"So you want to join us since we're a person more than you, and that'll raise the chances more," I summarised, glancing at my temporary teammate. "You're the team leader, Kirito-san."

"I… um…" Kirito mumbled, and then he lightly shook his head.

"... Yeah, sure."

The player's laughter filled the forest, and his smile widened. He took a step towards us, and offered his arm to my teammate, who took it in his.

"That's good to hear, I'm glad we came into an agreement. My name's Coper."

"... Do treat me well. I am Kirito." he said, still a bit careful around the new player. I firmly shook the player's hand when it was my turn to do so.

"Heishi."

Instead of smiling and greeting me like he had done to Kirito, Coper gave the blackette a puzzled look. But he didn't say anything.

"Come on, let's get hunting. Hopefully we'll get the Ovules before the other players get here," Coper said, and Kirito nodded.

"Yea, that's right. Let's go for it."

After that, I hid in the shadows to level up my skill and watch how the two beta players acted around each other, for future reference. I fixated my vision on Coper and Kirito as they dashed towards a couple of small Nepents that were roaming around.

After watching them for a few seconds, I felt extremely embarrassed.

I knew they were both Beta Testers, but this level of fighting was insane. While my reflexes were average, theirs were excellent. They dodged at the very last moment, left a distance between them and the monsters so they could quickly attack them with their one-handed swords. Their sword skills were almost flawless, using the Nepenthes' own attacks as a way to avoid their frozen status after using a skill.

My embarrassment came from two facts. One, Kirito and I only attacked two Nepenthes at once so far, while the two beta players were killing about 4 at the same time; and two, I thought that I was getting better. But… I really had a long way to go.

At that moment, I had a sinking feeling that if I didn't try harder, I'd die. But surely Kirito wouldn't let that happen while we were teammates. Maybe I was putting too much faith in him, giving him a responsibility that he hadn't asked for because he had teamed up with me, forcibly might I add.

An audible gulp was heard, and my eyes quickly shot to where the black-haired swordsman was. When I saw his eyes widen and teeth clench, I didn't think twice before I dashed forward.

Being distracted, for even a second, could cost you your life in this game. I was at least aware of that much because of my lack of judgement earlier this evening.

I deflected the vine that was flying through the air by slashing at it, and I stood in front of the teen.

"Are you all right?" I said, worry lacing my tone. He took a breath before he nodded in thanks.

"Coper, switch!" he shouted out, and Coper jumped back while Kirito ran towards a Nepenthes, charging a sword skill. By the time I lept away from a weak swipe that came from the Nepent that attacked Kirito, the monster in front of Coper was already sliced in half, exploding in light. The remaining Nepent wailed, and I charged a skill at it.

A warning on the lower right of my vision told me that my weapon's durability was in the orange field. Which meant I couldn't fight for too long, my weapon was going to break soon.

To my absolute amazement, right after I narrowed my eyes at the warning, I saw a Nepent with a flower.

"Hey, look!" I whispered, pointing at the monster. Almost in sync, after they finally recognised what I was pointing at, the two teens ran with their swords up, ready to slay it. I gripped my own weapon tighter, but stopped myself from running when Kirito harshly stopped Coper from attacking the monster.

I wasn't in earshot, so I couldn't hear what they were muttering about. I waited until Kirito scanned the area again, and I squinted my eyes as he pointed behind the Nepent with the flower.

Because Searching wasn't in my skill slot, I couldn't see the object of their concern because of how far I was, just the more detailed version of tree barks and leaves. Kirito beckoned for me to come over, and I carefully jogged towards him.

"What's wrong? Why aren't you killing it?" I asked in puzzlement.

"There's a Nepent with a seed there," Kirito answered. "We'll alert it if we attack. Coper will distract it, and we'll kill the Nepent with the flower and then help him."

"Alright. Let's start then," I agreed, and then crossed my arms. "Coper-san," I called, and the boy stiffened. With a smile, I nodded my head at him. "Good luck."

Coper smiled lightly. I shook my head to refocus on the situation and took out my sword. Kirito suddenly jumped, kicking behind dirt. Coper soon followed, and I ran to the left side to get a hit on the plant's weak point.

The monster roared at Kirito, and I dashed right when it extended one of its vines at him. It didn't notice me yet, so I quickly slashed under the trapping mechanism, which were the vines. The monster let out a pained scream when my weapon connected to one of them.

Faster than usual, the monster died. Kirito pocketed the Ovule, looked at me, then we both went to help Coper.

He was faring well on his own and was dodging everything, getting nicked here and there every once in a while. He looked like he was doing fine on his own. But when he glanced at us, his eyes had fire in them.

All of a sudden, I heard Coper apologise to us. I watched in horror as he hit the seed on the Nepent, making it burst and alert the other monsters in the area of our location. Coper then used his Hiding skill and disappeared behind one of the trees.

"Kirito!" I hissed, getting him to snap out of his daze.

"Wh… why?" he muttered fearfully. I clenched my jaw and took off to where Coper was hiding. With a grimace, I remembered that I didn't have any way to find Coper.

Before I could think of a way to catch him, I felt rustling behind me. I quickly whirled around to block whatever was attacking me.

Really, if not for the bushes surrounding us, I wouldn't have noticed. It still caused me to lose my footing, and get thrown towards one if the nearby trees.

With a start, as the Nepent in front of me jumped back, I noticed the other four behind it. I didn't know what to do, and slid onto my backside in a frozen state of mind before my " _fight_ " turned into " _flight_ ". I scrambled towards the general location of Coper, who I realised was _not_ using his Hiding skill and was actually shaking in terror. I roughly grabbed his arm, yanking him to his feet.

The Nepent wasn't going to give us any more leeway. It lunged at us with a deafening scream, and I couldn't do anything but wrap my arms around the frozen boy and throw us onto the ground, barely dodging the attack. I planted a foot on the grass and tried tugging him up, only for him to slip his hand out of mine in anger.

"Let me go!" Coper shouted, and I glared at him. I compiled and left him so I could search for Kirito. My breath hitched when I saw him fighting two monsters at once while the rest of the herd split up and advanced towards all of us. I grit my teeth and painfully gripped Coper's shoulder, my fear momentarily flashed back to anger.

The boy met my glare with his own. But the intimidation didn't work because of the flash of guilt behind his eyes.

"You," I hissed, "WILL help us even if it was the last thing you're going to do!"

"Heishi! Coper!" Kirito called, and I shot Coper one last glare before I crossed the space between my temporary teammate and I. Even if I didn't have any prior training in this game, even if it'd cost me my life, I had to somehow repay my debt to Kirito.

"S-Switch!" I exclaimed, planting a foot on the ground so I could give a boost to myself and deal a death blow to one of the monsters Kirito had been fighting. I didn't relax when it vanished in a swarm of tiny, bright lights, and switched again with Kirito so he could attack the other plant with a sword skill.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice how close one of the monster was, so the next thing I knew, I was being flung towards a tree yet again, this time taking the whole brunt of the attack.

I couldn't stop my body from shaking, nor the involuntary cry of pain that had escaped me. Fear crawled up my spine as the Nepent eerily advanced towards me, flanked by two others. My mind was still numb from the shock, and the tips of my fingers burned.

At this very moment, I could only watch in mute horror as it _smirked_ at me, showing far too many teeth that glinted in a huge mouth. I was too terrified of even moving a muscle as my mind kept telling me that I ran out of luck and I was really close to dying now.

I closed my eyes with a strangled shout and bit my inner cheek in preparation when I saw the vine attacking. When nothing hit me, I was sure one of the two teens had deflected it. So without looking who my saviour was, I scrambled away behind the tree that had almost caused my demise.

I opened one of my eyes to find my sword that I'd lost during the impact. When I found it, pure joy welled up inside of me, and I took heavy breaths to regain my bearings.

That… was going to my ever expanding list of why this game was trauma inducing.

Turning around to look at who had stopped the blow that would have surely killed me, I saw Kirito in the middle of blue fragments of lights which told me that one my would-be killers was dead.

"Thank you." I whispered, trying to convey just how much I was grateful for him.

"Just be more careful, please." he said, looking relieved.

"I will. Thank you." I repeated as I stood up on wobbly feet and shakily took an offensive stance behind him, trying my best to refocus on the fight and observe the two other Nepenthes that flailed their vines around, screamed at us, and then whipped them our way.

I attacked, lunging at the one that was still recovering as Kirito cut the vine of the one that was targeting him. My sword got stuck inside of the plant, and I used its larger body as a step to push myself away, kicking it again in the process to save my weapon.

After both plants exploded in thousands of lights, Kirito took out a red vial from his pouch and handed it to me. I wrapped my fingers around the thin top and gulped it down, and my HP stopped flashing in a red colour, which made me crack a watery smile and take out my own potion, giving it to Kirito so he could get his HP back up, too.

His eyes softened, and at that very moment, I felt like we'd established an unbreakable bond where he had my back while I had his.

Then a shout and a curse reminded me of Coper.

My smile dropped, and my head whipped towards the general location of the sounds. Quickly finding the silhouette of Coper, who looked downright murderous as he furiously warded off the monsters slowly approaching him, my heart dropped.

He wassurrounded.

Even when he was a backstabbing bastard, he was still a human being, and it would be indirect murder if we didn't help him. 2e could deal with him after this was over.

"Coper!" was the only thing I managed to say as I waved my arms around in panic. Kirito glanced in puzzlement at what I was gesturing at.

He reacted faster than I did, and I ran behind him. Adrenaline made everything seem much slower as half of the monsters attacked at once, the other half tauntingly licking their… lips in anticipation.

Coper narrowingly missed most of the attacks, but was hit by a few. I herriedly focused on his name.

His HP was in the red zone, and I knew what I had to do. I took out a healing potion and slid next to the fallen Coper while Kirito kept the monsters away from me while I gave him the potion.

Coper glared at me and slapped my hand away, and took out the same item from his own pouch. He sneered some more and got up to his feet.

With the three of us, it didn't take too long for all of the Nepenthes to disappear, along with my weapon.

A window popped up in front of me while my body was glowing in orange lights. With an unspeakable agreement, Kirito and I spun around to corner Coper in case he decided to run away.

I glared at the equally angry player before I jabbed a finger to his chest.

"You're a bastard," I settled on saying.

Kirito crossed his arms.

"Why did you do it?" he asked, his soft spoken words sounding too calm for the situation.

"Why do you think? This game is a test of speed, the faster we finish something, the stronger we'll be." he gritted out, and I frowned.

"So you only did it for power?" I accused, eyes narrowing in disgust.

I was sure if I looked at Kirito now, his eyes would be filled with betrayal and distrust.

"No, I did it for survival." Coper answered, sneering at me like I had asked the stupidest question. I resisted the urge to scowl.

"Coper… what you've done could have gotten us killed," Kirito said, and Coper's sneer deepened. "Including you."

"I know, _genius_. Killing you the traditional way was the other option!" he snarled, punching the tree bark behind him.

My frown turned into disbelief when Kirito took out an Ovule and threw it at Coper, who caught it on instinct alone. The brown haired player looked confused for a moment, then his face morphed into rage.

"I do NOT need your pity!" he hissed, glaring poisonously at Kirito as he threw the item at the ground. I stepped forward and crossed my arms.

"Watch it!" I sneered back. I was beyond furious at everything Coper had done. I stayed still, shielding Kirito from any backlash the player might do, clenching and unclenching my empty hand. The pang of betrayal hurt.

"Take the Ovule and please go away, Coper." Kirito said, but Coper only clicked his tongue and walked away from us, not sparing us any more glances.

"I, _do_ _not_ , need your pity," he growled over his shoulder. I childishly stuck out my tongue at him, and Kirito sighed as he picked up the Ovule.

"Good thing this is a key item… it doesn't have durability," he said, pocketing it. "Let's head back."

I attempted a smile, which he returned before we started heading back to Horunka. I silently followed, the forest was eerily quiet while we walked through it.

The longer we walked the more amazed I was at the fact that we'd survived.

As soon as we went past the gates, we saw many players walking around quickly, as if they didn't have time to waste. It successfully dampened my already low mood.

Kirito's shoulders stiffened, and he turned his head to me, (It gave me a clear view of how tired he felt), probably to make sure I was still there, then he spun around and went into an alleyway. I could only silently follow.

He knocked on the door. I couldn't help but stare at him with questioning eyes when he opened it after a few seconds of no one answering.

A thump echoed through the nearly empty house after Kirito handled the Ovule. He sat on the wooden chair in a daze, eyes following the woman as she used the key item. The NPC stirred the pot then pulled out a cup. She filled it up with the medicine before she walked to a closed door that I faintly remembered hearing a weak cough from when we'd first entered this house.

To my surprise, my teammate followed the woman. I didn't know what to do, so I let him enter the room alone. I awkwardly watched his back, and covered my face with the inside of my elbow as soon as he disappeared behind the door.

Today… today was tiring. Today was the worst day of my life.

I abruptly jolted at that thought, hitting my knee on the table and successfully got the «Immortal Object» system message.

This really, _really_ wasn't a game anymore. While it was a survival game, it wasn't at the same time.

It was our new reality.

Kayaba made Aincrad resemble the real world as much as possible. From the feeling of the fabric beneath my fingertips, to the raging emotions that made a storm rage inside of me. Through that, I felt alive. Add a threat of dying, then he successfully made me push away my fears and limits just so I could survive.

… Would I end up actually altering my reality to this? I was sure changes would happen to players, as seen today by Coper. Many would become Player Killers, actually murdering others for desperation or… for fun. Few would stay in the safety of the «Town of Beginnings». But the dominating number would want to live— to survive this game.

A sob, that was unmistakably _male_ , made my body practically teleport to the room my, I think as of today, permanent teammate had entered. What I saw made my eyes widen and for my heart to clench painfully in my chest.

Kirito had a hand over his eyes, the day's events finally catching up to him, it seemed. I took a hesitant step forward, watching how a little girl, who I assumed was the daughter of the woman, emotionlessly patted Kirito's hair as he tried muffling his cries.

I stood behind Kirito and remembered how Mitsuki, my friend and roommate in the real world, would hug me whenever I cried at… well, anything that really frustrated me.

Kirito didn't glance at me nor acknowledge my presence, which somehow meant he either didn't notice that I was here, or that he didn't entirely mind.

My fingers twitched, and I put a hesitant hand over his shoulder, the other grabbing the arm he was using to hide his eyes. I slowly pulled it down, and he finally looked at me. I tried to make my smile appear reassuring and understanding.

I gently pulled him into my arms, getting the NPC to let go of him. I replaced her hand with my own, patting down his black locks as his arms came up to hesitantly wrap around my middle. I put a little pressure into the hug, trying to convey that I'd be here for him whenever things got bad. That he could call me a friend and trust me, just like I now trusted him.

We'd get through this and survive. As a team.

.

.

* * *

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 **A/N: I have done it. I don' regret it.**

 **The novels for Sword Art Online are really, really good. And ever since I've reread some of the volumes, like GGO and the start of ALC, the muse for this didn't leave me.**

 **Do tell me if this chapter was too much (The fighting I mean, I've never done fight scenes on a pro level before, so I'd really love some feedback)**

 **I tried to change my style of monologuing to active, I hope it worked right and you enjoyed it! If there are any mistakes, do tell me so I can fix it. I read this more than 10 times so I probably got used to the errors and couldn't see anymore.**

 **Maybe now I can actually focus on my other story...**


	2. Chapter 2

_This is awkward._

Kirito stepped away from the hug I'd enveloped him in, his puffy eyes refusing to meet mine. His expression momentarily surprised me; I hadn't thought this game was capable of emulating so many emotions at the same time.

Staring at the wooden boards beneath our feet, Kirito scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. I rubbed my upper arm and stared at my fingers for the sake of having an excuse to avoid the uncertainty growing between us.

"Thank you," he said in a small voice. My mouth split into an awkward smile, a bit unsure how to reply to such sincerity.

"You're... welcome," I settled on saying, finally looking at his eyes. "Let's find a place to rest? We deserve it after what happened," I suggested, finding an excuse in the shape of the «Fatigued» debuff on the top right of my vision.

The teen's eyebrows furrowed, going silent in thought. Had I mentioned Coper too soon? Brushing things aside so quickly was something I couldn't help but do during a stressful situation, which only managed to fill the air with an awkward tension.

To my absolute delight, Kirito nodded after breathing out, successfully bringing relief to my heart.

"Yeah... I agree. There's a lodging inn nearby. We shouldn't stay there for more than a day, though. We have to take the quests in the next village. Tomorrow, if possible. The sooner we leave, the more we can accept before other players start appearing."

With that settled, we received our rewards from the NPC woman, which indeed were the infamous 1H swords, the «Anneal Blades». They were black and had no decorations on them. If you asked for a collector's opinion, they would answer that the weapon looked too generic for archiving.

Kirito shook his head when I attempted to equip it, so I dropped my arm and followed him as he took the lead once more. True to his words, we only had to walk past a few buildings to arrive to the inn.

The first thing that greeted us were the buzzing sounds of many jittery players. Some of them looked at ease of their surroundings, reminding me of Kirito, while the other half was jumping at any noise that came up. Had the new players followed the beta testers? I hurried to the front desk without looking like I was running away in fear, hoping they wouldn't take notice of me. I had a feeling like the players would take notice if someone was acting like a coward.

"Welcome! How may I help you?" a voice said from behind the wooden counter.

I barely contained a squeak from leaving my throat when the receptionist smiled at us. She was young and thin, with a cute face that glowed in kindness. Even with her petite stature, she gave off the feeling of an older sister rather than a young girl.

My muscles eased at her friendly tone, but that feeling quickly disappeared when I noticed the floating cursor above her head. That small icon almost made my heart stop, and I tightly clutched at the leather belt that held the shoulder pieces of my armour.

How real had Kayaba Akihiko made this world? First was the feeling of everything around me, then the woman and her ill daughter, and now this. It was uncomfortable.

"A room for two, please. Lowest price." Kirito slipped closer to me, as if noticing my brewing anxiety and fear. I was once again thankful for his steady presence.

The NPC nodded while going through a massive leather book, a quill between her fingers. "How many nights?"

"One," replied Kirito.

"That will be 10 Cols," she said, and her cheery tone alone managed to send chills down my spine. Kirito handed the required money to the woman before he took the key.

"I hope you'll have a pleasant night, honoured customers," the NPC said while bowing. I thanked her in a barely audible voice before I walked behind Kirito towards the stairs with shaky legs, eyes fixated on the creaking planks.

Feeling the intense stares drilling holes into our backs, I poked him so he'd hurry up to our room, not feeling reserved with physical contact after the intense first day we had had.

He didn't need any more prompting to speed up his steps, and we soon found ourselves inside the cheap room he'd rented with the door securely locked behind us. I sighed in relief, my back to the door, the room's furniture fully visible to me.

There was an old nightstand between two beds that looked like they would get destroyed by the simplest touch, and the meagre light coming from outside was being blocked by a tattered curtain with faded colours.

"I didn't expect anything more from a cheap room… but isn't this _too_ cheap?" I said, looking disappointed.

"We'll have to get used to rooms like these for a while. We won't have enough Cols to buy new equipment and healing items if we spend it on better rooms," he said, stretching his body with closed eyes and a slight groan. "I don't like it either, but it can't be helped."

"It can't be helped," I repeated, mulling over the words as I walked around the room. That was a common phrase, wasn't it? A lot of people liked saying it – I'd forgotten the implications of those words. I shouldn't be trying to change everything at once. _Baby steps,_ I thought.

"We should sleep to remove the fatigued status. Our armour can be repaired before we head out to «Tolbana»," Kirito said,and I nodded in agreement.

"When will we have to change our weapons?" I asked and threw myself on the bed I had just finished cleaning.

Kirito put his hand on his chin, thinking deeply before he said, "Third floor, assuming we don't find any better weapons before that."

I wasn't sure if waiting that long was a good idea or not, but the only reason Kirito and I had started that dangerous quest was because of the «Anneal Blades», so I figured they were decent weapons. We had to be careful not to break them, though. I really didn't want to do that awful quest again, or any quest similar to it, really. It was an unrealistic wish, but I was allowed to dream at least this much until I'd be forced to do a similar one again.

Sheepishly smiling while biting my lower lip, I tried gathering my courage and turned to face Kirito when he seated himself on the opposite bed, looking displeased at the quality of the mattress. Or lack, thereof.

"I- uh… I'll need some help with handling the «Anneal Blade»— I'm not forcing you though!" I quickly added, then fixated my gaze on the half eaten rug that was between the beds. "Sorry, I'm really asking a lot from you."

I balled my fists on the end of my off-white tunic, waiting for whatever words he'd tell me in the uncomfortable silence, but the clearing of his throat made me glance at him. He cheeks were red, blushing brightly as he scratched his cheek.

"It's really fine, Heishi. I'm grateful that you decided to join me," he said, his sincerity making my face as red as his. I averted my gaze.

Even if he said it was fine, I still didn't want him to slow down for some random stranger who he had nothing to do with. I didn't want to be a burden more than I was.

"...Could you help me become stronger? I don't want to hold you back anymore," I whispered, my sweat icy against my back. It felt like I went back to junior-high, where even the slightest social interaction used to give me cold feet.

I should pull myself together. I was a University student, older than him! I glanced back at Kirito, finding a small amount of courage to face him. And to my utmost relief, he nodded with a slight smile. I let go of a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Yeah, let's become stronger. Together."

A burst of happiness warmed up my chest, then my brain finally caught up with what had happened today. A weight settled on my shoulders as sudden exhaustion hit me, finally telling me I had endured enough, that I shouldn't force myself to appear like I was fine with nearly being murdered by a fellow player.

I sniffled and put a hand on my mouth to muffle my cries, tilting my head down so my brown bob-cut hair could hide my face as I stared at my leather skirt. I'd refused to show weakness in front of anyone when Kayaba Akihiko's announcement had changed our lives, and it wasn't any different now. I still refused to cry in front of strangers.

… But Kirito was now a friend, right? He wasn't a stranger anymore, but a teammate who had my back in this harsh new world, just like I had his. Someone I should trust, whose knowledge could save my life as well as his if I followed his commands without hesitation.

My survival in this surreal reality counted on this team, on _him_. I wanted to do my best to share that role someday and pay him back for taking me with him, for helping me.

So for the first time that day, I let the tears fall. Both for what I had temporarily lost and because of what the future was hiding. At some point I must've fallen asleep, because I awoke to the bright light that the tattered curtains did nothing to ward off. I pushed myself upright with an annoyed frown but froze when I looked around.

Right. I was still in the death game. Just yesterday Coper had attempted to murder us. I shook myself out of bed, trying my hardest to change my mindset. While I wouldn't call this a home, I needed to look at the positive side of things or else I'd fall into a pit of depression. I opted to sit down on the bed, watching as Kirito slept for a few more moments before he stirred.

"Good morning," I said when he stretched. If not for the health bar and name hovering above his head, this scene would have been normal.

Kirito rubbed his eye, two fingers summoning his menu. "Good morning."

I followed suit, equipping my armour and leaving my weapon in my inventory. "What's the plan for today?"

"We need to level up," he answered with another yawn. "Are you ready?"

 _No_ , I almost wanted to say, but I nodded with a smile. I didn't want to see anyone new for a while, fearing another Coper would appear because of the players' desperation to get out of this game. But, of course, I couldn't listen to my thoughts and emotions right now or else I'd end up staying behind and letting others do the heavy work. I was not the type of person to sit back and watch.

Thankfully, not even once had we seen Coper in the village once we went out to search for new quests. I didn't mind not meeting with him ever again. His betrayal wouldn't be forgotten anytime soon. It was a blessing that «Horunka» didn't have many players loitering around its streets yet, the players I'd seen before had probably went off to grind, so I didn't have to constantly glance behind me for any terrified person ready to actually kill for survival.

"They're already at it," Kirito said beneath his breath, loud enough for me to hear him. He gestured for a few players that seemed to be arguing. "Having our «Anneal Blades» isn't going to help if we're not fast enough."

I nodded, feeling faint as I realised that this world was going to be a fight to see who was the quickest at finding rewarding quests and clearing them before others could.

As the day advanced into nighttime, more and more players had started flooding «Horunka» and its surrounding areas. I wouldn't say there was a huge number of people, but the amount was big enough for the common quests to become a challenge to complete without bumping into anyone.

I saw the solution for that problem being made as quickly as it arose. The players banded together to find a way to clear the quests needed without hindering each other, and to try and find a way to quicken the pace of finding the «First Floor Labyrinth».

Rumours quickly spread around saying that those players were working on shaky rules and had made small parties to take advantage of the spawn times in order to level themselves up as quickly as possible. Even those parties had their own rules over splitting drops so they could focus their efforts on exploring the huge map instead of fighting over who would get what.

All of that was done in half a day.

Kirito was silent, lost in thoughts after hearing some scared players whispering to each other about how stupid it was to share with strangers. We were winding sitting in the inn's common room after finishing up our grinding. I wanted to tell those players to go and do something about their levels instead of gossip over what others did, but I'd held down my tongue when Kirito wordlessly motioned for me to follow him back to our shared room.

"Will the peace between them last?" he asked, his chin pinched between two fingers. I shrugged, not knowing what to say but mulling over his question to give him a proper answer.

"I don't know. I think they'll be fine as long as they stick to their rules. If a team gets their hands on an item and decide they want to keep it rather than share it, though..." I shook my head as I flopped down on the hard bed, not caring that my leather skirt fluttered upwards since my armour had a pair of slacks beneath it. "Why don't they make a guild, though? That's more practical than relying on separate parties to do the job, isn't it?"

Sitting down rather than throwing himself on his bed, Kirito stretched upwards and said, "I'm not sure about the open-server, but the guild system wasn't introduced in the Beta until the third floor. So that's out of the question for the time being. And I agree – a fight will break out if one of the teams cheated on the other."

"Hey," I said after a moment of silence, and Kirito tilted his head to face me, black strands of hair falling into his eyes. "Do you think Kayaba Akihiko lied?"

Kirito grimaced, his hand resting on his lap. He didn't look too pleased at the mention of the scientist that started all of this, I'd heard some players that didn't fully believe what he'd told us and were recklessly doing quests without any regard to their lives – They might have thought they'd wake up in the real world after being disconnected from the server.

"Kayaba Akihiko has no reason to lie to us. We're trapped here until we complete the game." Kirito tilted his head, letting it rest on a shoulder. "For now, there's nothing else to do but try our best and survive until the end."

"We should spy on parties to see what they're doing. This way we'll know what quests to take and leave," I said, firmly pressing my thumb and pointer fingers together before bringing my hand down. My status screen shimmered into view as Kirito and I yawned in tandem.

"As I thought, you really know how to play games," Kirito said with a drowsy smile. I mirrored his expression, albeit a little shyly at the compliment, while going through the motions of unequipping my outer armour.

"I've told you before – I've played online games before." I exhaled in relief when they shimmered out of view and back into my Inventory. Even though the armour was a perfect fit, having only a shirt and my slacks on was more comfortable than fully wearing it.

Kirito chuckled. "You'll get used to staying in armour, but I guess there's no need to as long as we have a place to stay in."

I jumped onto my bed, hugging one of the pillows and squirmed around until I was comfortably huddled under my flimsy blanket.

"I _really_ don't care what I wear as long as there's a bed greeting me by the end of the day," I said, lifting my head up to give him a serious look. He looked amused, a tiny smile on his lips. He slowly made his way to the other bed and I turned my head back to the side so I could watch him as he, too, took off his battle gear.

"Goodnight," I slurred, not quite caring if I got the words right from the sleep that suddenly overtook me.

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My eyes flew open in panic, back sweaty and breath ragged. I frowned at the ceiling, trying to remember what got me so scared, but came up empty handed as my mind blanked out. I hadn't had a nightmare since I was a little girl, and back then I'd crawled into my parent's bed to cuddle with them for the rest of the night.

But right now I didn't have anyone but Kirito to take comfort in, so I tilted my head towards his bed and stared at his still form. I could hear his soft breathing and his silhouette thanks to the moonlight that snuck into the room through the curtains. His shadow went up and down in rhyme with his breathing. After a few moments of staring at him and calming myself down, I pushed the blankets away from me while I rubbed my eyes with the heel of my palms, swinging my legs down the side of the bed and letting them softly meet the cold floor.

With another glance at Kirito, I fully stood up. I needed to get out of the room to cool down my nerves. A breath of fresh air always helped with that. I opened the door and checked both sides for any player that hadn't gone to sleep yet, and when I saw nobody I deemed it safe for me to pad downstairs to the bar. I tightly held the wooden railings when dizziness shot through me, my hand clutching my head from the weird shock. I sighed, feeling like the weight of my life crushing my shoulders again as I entered the lounge.

The emptiness didn't surprise me– It was really late. While I was annoyed that I was up and running after midnight, I couldn't help another sigh from escaping me as I sat on the stool. I wanted to buy something warm to drink and let my damp mood pass without it affecting Kirito.

At least, that was the plan. I frowned at the empty space before me. An NPC should've came up to me and asked what I wanted to buy, but nobody was there. I looked around, even going as far as to lean on the counter and look beneath it, now more awake and worried. The lounge was empty.

Stranger things have happened, but NPCs were supposed to be active at all times in Inns, right? If a player needed a place to stay at a late hour, someone should greet them and rent them a room. The receptionist or even a waitress should be here.

"–It hurts–"

"–Please put up with this while I finish–"

The ghostly voice startled me away from the counter, and I found myself hopping over the counter once the man's voice rang through the lounge. When nobody came out to scold me for trespassing, I went through the open backdoor, eyes darting left and right in search for the crying woman. I remember seeing terrified women crying in the Plaza after Kayaba Akihiko had force-teleported us, but the man's voice made my heart beat faster in fear.

The backdoor led to a damp storage room, which had another door that was slightly opened. The crying grew louder the closer I stepped towards it. I peered through it, and a long hallway came into view. I pursed my lips as I brought down my fingers, opening my status menu to requip my armour along with my «Anneal Sword». It weighed heavily on my hip once it materialised.

One really couldn't be too careful in this game – I might be paranoid, though. Towns were safe areas, Kirito had told me. But safe areas usually had portals leading to hidden dungeons, which meant I could die if I entered without any prior preparation.

I heard the man speaking in hushed tones behind the door, and it took me a moment to place where I'd heard his voice before. It was the NPC that was supposed to be taking orders at the counter, which made me hesitate to push open the door.

I _could_ go through this on my own, but what was the use of a teammate then? It was safer to have someone experienced with me, anyways. This was my life on the line and there was a high chance that the corridor led to a special quest, now that I properly thought about it.

Therefore, I needed Kirito for this. I left the door half opened and tip-toed back to our room while praying nobody woke up because of me – I didn't want anyone to follow us through the hallway. I took large steps towards his bed and poked his shoulder.

"Kirito-san." He stirred, so I used more force, jostling his entire body with my palm. "Kirito!"

"Nnng…" he groaned, face scrunching up in annoyance. I pushed his hair away from his eyes, which finally forced him to attempt opening them. He blinked a couple of times, blurry eyes trying to focus on my face.

"H-Heishi? What's wrong?" he said when I stepped away from him. "Why are you in your armour?"

"There's a woman crying downstairs and– I'm not sure, but I think it's a special quest?."

At the mention of the woman, Kirito's entire body shot upright. "A player?"

"No. There was a man's voice. I think it was the cook's." The confusion in his expression made me pause and furrow my eyebrows. "This wasn't in the Beta?"

Kirito slowly shook his head as he put on his armour. I worriedly bit my bottom lip. This was unknown territory.

"Let's just… be careful."

"Are we stocked up on potions?" Kirito asked, leading the way back downstairs. I shook my head before I realised that he couldn't see me.

"We didn't buy any yesterday."

"Then I really hope this isn't a hidden quest," he said, jumping over the counter. I followed him through the door and took the lead towards the storage room, but Kirito put a hand over my shoulder and stopped me when I opened the door there.

"Let me go first."

I made way for him and he went past me, his hand over the hilt of his sword. The hallway was even longer than I thought, and the hiccuping got louder the closer we were to the open door that was in the middle of the corridor. Kirito poked his head inside of it and his whole body went rigid. I followed suit, crouching down next to his legs to peer inside.

I was greeted with the sight of an old man changing the filthy bandages of a woman. He was working painstakingly, throwing aside the used wrappings and using new ones. She bit into a closed fist, the tears rolling down her cheeks. The old man smeared some kind of balm on the woman's skin, the bed dipping further while he worked. He used a sleeve to wipe away the sweat that had gathered over his brow, inspecting his handiwork.

My eyebrows furrowed. They were both the NPCs that were supposed to be attending the bar. The man was the cook, and the woman was the receptionist. He was a typical-looking NPC with brown hair and green eyes, but his skin was pale and he was hunching from tiredness. But the woman struck me as odd – she'd looked so cheerful while attending to us, and not once had she shown that she was ill in any way.

"Dear…" the woman said, lips trembling in an effort to hold down any further tears. My heart throbbed at the sight, forgetting that we were in a game because of how much pain they were both showing.

"What is it, wife of mine?" the old man softly said, calming the woman with his gentle tone.

"Will this be over soon? I don't think I can handle another night of this pain," she said, closing her eyes tightly. My hands went up to cover my mouth, muffling a gasp. But in doing so I wobbled in my place and lost my balance after a moment, falling down before Kirito could help me. I bumped into the door, fully opening it in the process. Kirito scratched his cheek and laughed sheepishly while I rubbed my shoulder out of habit.

"What are traveling swordsmen doing these hallways? These are private rooms," the man said, standing up to his full height as he hid the woman behind his back, broad shoulders making it impossible to see her. I raised both of my arms in defense when he pointed the scissors he'd used to cut the wraps and advanced towards us when we didn't instantly answer him.

"We– we're here to help!" I said in a panic. My companion nudged me with a shoulder and I bumped his arm with my elbow. "Right?"

"Yeah." Kirito nodded with a gulp, the weapon in the man's hand gleaming dangerously. "What seems to be the problem?"

He frowned at Kirito, green eyes darting between us until he settled on my teammate. "How can I trust that you will not tell the soldiers about my wife's condition?" he asked incredulously. I glanced at Kirito, meeting his equally confused gaze. Why would he keep this as a secret?

"What is her condition, exactly?" Kirito said and the man's eyes widened in disbelief.

"You truly don't recognise the illness?" he asked, and at our blank expression, he pinched the bridge of his nose as he sat back next to his son's. The poor woman looked afraid, but also resigned to her fate. Her fingers clutched at the man's shirt, and the man gently pried them away, holding her arm out. He undid his work and we waited patiently for him to finish.

"What is that?!" I couldn't help but hiss out. I almost ran towards the woman to inspect the weird looking crystals that littered her skin, but I stopped myself at the very last moment. The man winced at my reaction, looking guarded. Kirito put a hand on my shoulder to stop my advances.

"We don't know what that is, Sir. But it looks serious. Is there anything we can do to help you?" he said with a steady tone, offering our services. The man relaxed at the words.

"There's been an illness plaguing these parts," he said, a hand on the woman's shoulder. She seemed to calm down at that, leaning into her husband's comforting hand. "My name is Albert, and this is Elanor. We will be eternally grateful if you help us."

I didn't know what else to do but nod my head when he bowed down. Kirito rubbed the bridge of his nose, muttering, "How did you manage to find a special quest at three in the morning?"

"We will help," I said in avoidance to his question. I wasn't about to tell him I'd had a nightmare. "What do you need us to do?"

Albert's face lit up, hope shining through him like Christmas was just around the corner. I tried my best to ignore the fact that it _was_ almost that time of the year again, but my parent's faces flashed in my head and I had to bite my lower lip so my thoughts wouldn't wander into the spirling pit of bad thoughts.

"Here." The man gave Kirito a map, and I curiously looked over it once he unfurled it. "There's a man called Grigard who's studying the disease. He went into a nearby cave to make the cure, but it's been weeks since I've heard from him. I was going to go there myself but I can't leave my wife alone. Would you please check if he's still alive?"

"How long has he been gone for?" I asked, wondering if this was a trap of some sort. Albert sighed.

"Long enough. A few weeks, perhaps. I can't risk anyone from the village finding out about my son so I haven't been able to contact him. Grigard and I have agreed to speak only if I contacted him first."

"Then we'll help," Kirito easily agreed. "Is the cave marked on the map?"

"Yes, right here," Albert said with a tiny smile of hope while pointing at a yellow spot. Judging from the terrain surrounding it, the cave was inside of a forested area.

"We'll be back soon." I nodded, accepting the quest when the option to do so floated in front of me. I straightened myself as I looked to the side of my screen for any debuffs – the «Fatigued» status was no longer there, thankfully.

"I will be here at the same time tomorrow, traveling swordsmen. I wish you the best of luck."

The woman smiled, her eyes shining from the dried tears. Kirito was lost in thoughts the whole way back to the lounge. I jumped across the counter, and with a thump I softly sat down on the wooden stool that was in front of it. Kirito leaned onto the counter, a hand on his chin. When he shook his head, I fully faced him.

Whilst I didn't want to sleep yet, going into the forest when it was still nighttime wasn't appealing, but before I could voice my thoughts, Kirito suddenly frowned and opened his menu with two fingers. He skimmed through it and I hesitatingly hopped next to him. He hovered his menu towards me without saying anything, and the hazy words became sharper until I was able to properly read what was written on it. I peered at it as he read the quest information with a focus I was slowly growing to respect.

"Here." He pointed at the requirements, a crease still between his eyebrows. "I hoped we didn't have a time limit, but it seems like we'll have to meet this Grigard as soon as possible."

My eyes worriedly darted towards the windows of the inn, hoping that we weren't going to move about at night. It wasn't ideal to do so, and while the faint lights coming from the floor above us did a decent job of allowing me to vaguely see the house that was across the inn, I couldn't see anything beyond that.

"It'll be alright. I know how to avoid the monsters that crawl during the night," Kirito said. But if he'd thought he was reassuring me, he was mistaken. I gulped.

"Do we have enough potions?" I quickly said. I was _not_ going to think of crawling monsters right before we were going to venture into the forest.

He rubbed the back of his neck with a tiny smile that I felt was teasing, and opened our shared inventory. He nodded in satisfaction after inspecting it. "We have enough health potions, so we need to fix the durability of our equipment and then go meet Grigard."

"Let's just go before I change my mind."

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* * *

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 **A/N: After a lot of thoughts and fixing up the timeline and general plot, I've decided against keeping the chapters short. I felt a little restrained when I tried doing that, and writing was no longer fun for a long time. I'm getting back into the groove of things, though!  
**

 **As usual, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! It was a bit corny in some parts, but I honestly like cheesy dialogues/ thoughts.**


	3. Chapter 3

Stepping through the bushes, I slashed at a « **Starved** Blue Wolf». It was pure luck that I'd seen it scavenging through the foliage for food, with its twitching nose and razor-sharp teeth presented to the world.

The title of the monster was unusual, but it gave us a gist of why it was erratic in its vicious attacks. «Starvation» seemed to have pushed the wolf into desperation for food. I shuddered, wondering just how we'd managed to sneak up on the frenzied beast.

Kirito followed up my critical attack with a sword skill, and the wolf let out a loud yelp. We descended upon it, not giving it a chance to recover. Soon, the wolf dispersed into tiny lights and I grinned wide enough for Kirito to see through the disappearing fragments.

His nod of encouragement did nothing to veil his worry, though, and my expression dropped into a more serious one. Right. Not the time for silly grins. We were here on a quest to find the person making the cure for the innkeeper's sick wife.

"Wolves come in packs," Kirito said, barely a whisper as he scanned the area with sharp eyes, only intended for my ears to hear. I frowned.

"I don't see any other monster." I adjusted the sword on my back, scuffing the ground with the toe of my protective boots. "A scout maybe? It had «Starvation»."

"We can't know for sure. Be careful," Kirito replied with a shake of his head. With no words, we stalked through the darkness. It was a long walk, especially because I was trying to raise my «Hiding» skill at a suggestion from the boy.

The measly lights on the bottom of the second floor barely illuminated our way, and my mirthful mood had completely vanished when Kirito grabbed my arm and hid inside a nearby bush. It did a good job in obscuring us from view.

He put a finger to his lips. I nodded in understanding and sought the object he was pointing towards. It didn't take me too long to see the pack of « **Starved** Dire Wolves» sniffing and growling. They were vicious in their snarls, drool falling from the side of their open mouths.

As if it would fully hide me if a monster got near enough to notice our scent, I lowered myself further. A hand hovered above my sword, ready to pull it out.

"They don't know we're here," he whispered while pointing at the map the NPC had given us. "We can either attack or wait for them to leave. Our destination is the cave behind them."

There was at least six in the pack, searching for something, and I sure hoped they didn't have humans on their menu today.

"Too many," I replied with a shake of my head. "We can go around them and see if there's another opening?"

"We have to be very careful."

Kirito took the lead. I wordlessly trailed after him, monitoring the wolves as they nipped at each other, their barks raising my hackles and making me tense my entire body in readiness. My entire focus was on staying as silent as possible, taking measured steps across the trees.

I'd wanted an excuse to use «Hiding» again and level it up. It wouldn't have been a skill if it didn't have a purpose in Kayaba Akihiko's grand scheme of things. As of now, though, it was useless against monsters who relied on their noises.

Kirito rubbed the back of his neck in a habit that I noticed to be a nervous tick, face grim and lips pursed. Without being prompted to do so, I raised myself away from the bushes enough to see the **«Fatigued** Frenzy Boars» that infested the other side of the « **Starved** Dire Wolves». I bit into my lower lip as I sank down, my back scraping against the tree trunk.

"They're surrounding the entrance from all directions… How are we going to finish this quest?" I said in utter defeat.

Logically, if we were to attack the boars, then the wolves would hear the fight and join in. I didn't even want to think about attacking the wolves – Their teeth and long claws weren't inviting even in their weakened state.

If we could somehow lure them one at a time, then we could win. But that'd also be near impossible to do thanks to the locations of the wolves and boars.

I'd rather fight «Little Nepenthes» than go up against all of these at once.

"Let's try the back. We're bound to find something," Kirito said, and I scrambled back to my feet when he took off, weaving through the forest.

I couldn't help but scrunch my nose in distaste and mutter, "Next thing we know, we'll be finding _bears_ on the other side."

The moment I said that, the roar of a bear reached our ears.

The name, « **Murderous** Moon Bear» was the most uninviting thing I'd ever had the displeasure of reading. Both of the monster's names were almost black by how dark they were. The grave situation left Kirito visibly unamused at the way I'd just jinxed us.

One of them used a tree as a scratching post, pitch black claws damaging the mossy bark. It was red with a white circle on its front fur. The other one, white with a red circle instead, dragged its back against the other tree with a yawn that was big enough to give us an eyeful of its teeth – They were as big as my hand, if not bigger.

Kirito physically dragged me to safety since my knees locked and I couldn't move an inch. His touch made me aware of my shaking body, my limbs not responding even when I willed them to stop their involuntary reaction. I hugged myself, crouching down, making myself as tiny as possible. I could almost hear my heart beating in my ears.

Those two bears could shred us like nothing, snuffing our lives out with a swipe of their glinting claws.

"Heishi."

Was I having a panic-attack?

"Look at me," Kirito ordered, and I attempted to meet his stare. "We can drop the quest if it's too much."

I inhaled deeply, shaking my head. While the action was unnecessary in this world, it still brought a sense of calmness and control over myself. I had to get used to mobs similar to mobs like this even through the numbing fear. If I turned my back away from them now, I didn't think I could face them later. I'd just end up cowering again.

"No," I said aloud, as firmly as I could, both to Kirito and that thought.

 _Look at the facts_.

Games were made so they could be beaten. There was always a formula of sorts, just like cooking. It required ingredients, effort, and patience. I just had to gather myself so Kirito and I could make something out of this seemingly impossible mission.

"There's – There's obviously a puzzle here we need to crack so we can advance."

I didn't know if Kirito's nod was for my sake or if he truly believed there was another route. The way he pinched his chin and frowned in thought made me hopeful, though.

The twin bears huffed at each other, growling and pawing the grass. Kirito drew back, as if that'd allow him to see the bigger picture. Time seemed to pass slowly while I occupied myself by recalling the three types of mobs we'd encountered so far, mentally trying to guess their weaknesses and strengths.

Fatigued boars, obviously weak from the status effect. Starved wolves, unpredictable in their search for food, and murderous bears – The most intimidating and the ones I least wanted to fight. I wished someone else could butt in and fight them for us. Someone strong, preferably.

A tiny rock bumped my bare thigh – My skirt had ridden up, but I didn't move to fix it. My eyes didn't move away from the same rocks that littered the ground. Kirito kicked at another one, and it barely made any sound as it rolled towards me.

Everything seemed to click in place, and we both scrambled to reach the rock at the same moment. Our hands brushed, fingers almost getting tangled, and I grabbed another rock without acknowledging _that_ ever happened.

"We make them fight," Kirito said in newfound determination. His tone infected me, seeping into my bones and giving me enough strength to raise to my feet with only a slight wobble.

"It's like rock paper scissors!" I agreed, tracing the rock's cool texture with my thumb.

"I don't know if this will work. But we have to try. Let them attack each other." He nodded with an easy smile, the tension slipping away. The bears growled and I let my arm drop back to my side.

"If this doesn't work..." I muttered, my face falling at the reminder of their existence.

Kirito pinched the bridge of his nose,

"We can outrun them." The _probably_ was left unsaid, yet crystal clear. "We'll go into the cave while they're distracted."

"We can do this," I said with a shaky tone.

Kirito rested a hand over the hilt of his sword, and I found repeating the motion brought an imitation of courage. If I tried hard enough, I could believe our words and move forward.

"We can," he confirmed.

We gathered a few more rocks and tip-toed back to the « **Fatigued** Frenzy Boars». The plan was simple – lure them towards the wolves and then bring the bears to deal with both monsters. That way, we'd have made it possible to run to the cave while they were attacking each other. We could do that even if they found us out.

It seemed easy in theory, but anything and everything could go wrong.

"Does the cave look like a dungeon to you?" I motioned to the entrance with my head when we passed the wolves towards the boars on the left side of the clearing. Kirito didn't look at me when he answered.

"It was empty in the Closed Beta. The players made fun of the developers since it looked like they had forgotten to use it." He went behind a tree and I easily slipped beside him.

"He must have been… waiting…"

We were about to start our plan even as I was speaking, but the world abruptly swayed. Left, right. I didn't know what was up and what was down for a second, and I had to put a palm over my head when everything became fuzzy and incomprehensible. I vaguely heard Kirito calling for me as my knees thudded against the mossy dirt.

Inhaling deeply, I steadied myself using Kirito's shoulder, confusion and panic seizing me even when I forced myself to stay conscious of my surroundings. Everything around me whizzed, colours and noises blurring together as I lost function over my body.

Kirito's arms stopped me from painfully crashing to the ground. My head was limp on his shoulder. I was sure he was speaking, but his words weren't registering. My ears rang, and everything spun to the point of making me believe the entire world was quaking.

I could barely feel Kirito when he shook me. I tried telling him I was still awake, but no voice left my throat. Cool fingers pressed against my forehead and I startled; couldn't do anything but lay in his arms as he checked me over. I fought the lethargy with all my might.

Even then, my eyes closed in defiance.

Voices filled the surrounding space. I couldn't comprehend what they were saying no matter how much I tried to focus on them. For some time, I only heard them echo around me. Most of them I couldn't recognise, but after a while I heard the distinct voices of my family conversing with some people I didn't know. At the exact same time, I could hear Kirito's shouts, and the slashes of a sword followed by the growls of monsters.

This space I was in made little sense. I couldn't pin-point the location of the various voices as they mended into one another, leaving me confusedly trying to grasp at both. It was like I had two bodies working, with two minds feeling and listening to both the real and virtual world. I could feel myself lying down on a bed, yet I knew I was being carried on Kirito's shoulder.

But my body wasn't responding to any command I gave it. I didn't know how long I'd stayed in the void between the two worlds, how long it took to feel the pinprick of sensation in the tips of my fingers.

With a jolt and a loud gasp when the other voices finally vanished into the surrounding darkness, I bolted upright. The glare of light that forced me to shield my eyes was a clear sign that I'd been unconscious long enough for the sun to come out.

The fog and the blur of my thoughts took their sweet time to clear up. I squinted in confusion. Various coloured rocks and stones filled the place and I faintly realised I was now in the cave, somehow. The light was coming from some kind of hole at the top.

The sensation beneath my palm wasn't cold and unforgivingly hard, though, and I looked down, sluggish and weak. I was on some kind of cot and there was a fur blanket that covered my legs down to my toes. I took a fistful of the fur and spent some time studying it, not understanding my situation. I only stopped when black hair filled my vision.

"Heishi?" Kirito said, but his words didn't quite align with the way his mouth moved. Lagging, was the term I distantly recalled. But it didn't feel right. Something had clearly happened.

He took full notice of my wince and lowered the volume of his voice, probably thinking that was what brought my sudden discomfort.

"How do you feel...?"

The hesitant touch on my shoulder grounded me, and I was finally capable of enough self control to use actual words and I replied with a simple word,

"Terrible."

I didn't know he could look even more worried, but he proved me wrong when the corners of his eyes tightened and his lower lip caught between his teeth. I tried to smile at him when he offered a helping hand.

Somehow balancing my whole weight on my shaky legs, I took a step forward but ended up tripping in an instant. I braced myself for impact but Kirito was ready to stop me, perhaps expecting my fall. Perhaps I shouldn't push myself when I was still disjointed by the surreal experience that was having two bodies at once.

"That shouldn't have happened," he said, his gaze darting in search for answers. "Do you remember anything?"

Do I? The void was too much for me to make heads or tails from. Everything was a little tangled up, the starting point to figuring out what had happened to me was nowhere in sight. In front of me, though, was a goal and a very damp cave.

So I shook my head, hoping he'd drop the subject. I couldn't answer that question when I didn't know what had happened.

"How did we get here? Was the plan successful?" I suddenly said with a heavy frown, remembering the sound of growling. He scratched his cheek with a wince, allowing the change of subject.

"I had to carry you. And… Well, let's say the plan _half_ worked. It's been a day and the bears haven't gotten bored yet. They're waiting outside."

"A whole day and… We're stuck?" I pinched the bridge of my nose with a visible grimace, trying to hide my shock. Still, I was thankful for his bluntness. "Is there any chance we could overwhelm them?"

"I wouldn't risk it. Their levels are too high," Kirito said while shaking his head.

The fear crawling up my spine was the reason I stopped walking. But I darted my gaze around, trying to latch onto something before I fell into panic.

The carts and boxes scattered in the cave were a good distraction. They were broken and most likely empty. But it was still too soon to decide if that was a good or a bad thing.

A strong gust of wind ruffled my hair, halting my thoughts. It came from a hole deeper in the cave.

"Did you feel that?"

Kirito nodded. "There's an entrance over there. But I haven't inspected it yet, just in case something happened to you."

"Ah, I… Thank you." I said, cheeks flaring up. He really was a good guy, wasn't he? He didn't fall for his curiosity and left me vulnerable in a new environment and stood guard instead while I was passed out.

Upon a closer look, it turned out the open hole had a gate once upon a time. It was beyond repair now, and only scratched beams of wood held up the stones, giving off the impression that this place was _really_ behind on maintenance.

Even when Kirito naturally took the lead, I found my hand resting on the pommel of my sword. It didn't help with my reaction time, though, and I covered my head with a small squeak, closing my eyes and freezing in place when a swarm of bats awakened when we stepped through the hole. I could feel the flutter of their wings brush against my forearms and I curled tighter into myself.

"Here," Kirito said and I cracked open a teary eye despite the shaking of my body.

He was offering his hand. I was really eternally grateful for him, but despite the comfort that it'd have brought, I reached out and pinched the edge of his sleeve instead. We were still practically strangers, even after saving each other's lives.

"Thank you," I gulped down my nerves, forcing the words out to make Kirito _understand_. "... Just a little shaken from –" I gestured at nothing with a finger. "– _you know_."

"It's fine. It's just..." he said while scratching his cheek, awkwardly looking away, pale cheeks a little red.

I stared at the narrow road ahead to avoid the awkward air. It looked long, with barely any lights the whole way through. My hand shot out to the damp and mossy wall, becoming fascinated by the changing textures. When I lost my balance, I focused on Kirito's feet so I could step where he was, avoiding the small stones that kept rolling beneath my shoes.

At the first hint of grass peeking between the stony ground, I stood on the tips of my toes to see the exit above Kirito's shoulders. It was narrow and wouldn't fit both of us at the same time. That forced him to let go so he could duck and pass through. When I bent down to follow, I realised that this was the reason the entrance had those broken boxes.

The moment we emerged was when I briefly wondered if Kirito and I had somehow stumbled into the Twilight Zone. It was nothing like the stony passage and dripping walls.

A large lake was in the middle, a falling waterfall was coming down from a hole in the ceiling, while overgrown plants and trees filled the ground around it. Sunlight snuck into the cavern, but the main source of glow was the luminescent mushrooms sticking out of the stony walls.

Startled by the strange scenery, I could only gap, jaw slackening at its surreal beauty, my soul soothed just by looking at it.

"It's breathtaking!" I gushed, crouching down to touch a patch of flowers. The softness of the petals was a stark contrast to the rocks.

"I wonder where Grigard is, though." Kirito hummed, eyes darting around in search of said NPC.

At the reminder of the quest, I ducked my head, which caused my shoulder-length hair to fall forward and expose the back of my neck. Just then, a breeze came from the narrow passage. It tickled my skin and was refreshing, but…

"Is there something on my neck?"

There was a weird weight pushing my head down that I didn't fully notice until now. The more I focused on it, the weirder the feeling got. I reached back and traced the tips of my fingers over the skin, then slid my hand further down and came into contact with a weird texture. It was smooth in some parts and jagged in others, and I pressed down on it to get a more accurate image of what was sticking out of my skin.

Something nicked my finger at the same time Kirito came close enough to take a proper look. He jumped towards me in an instant as I stared at the injury on my skin. It wasn't bleeding; the wound was shining as if my body was made of light. It _was_ made of only zeroes and ones.

Kirito's hands hovered right above my neck and I shied away from him. He looked like he wanted to push me further down so he could inspect it. I tried maintaining my position, and I soon felt the pressure of a finger on my skin.

"Crystals?" he muttered, voice choked as he traced a line down, "Just like the wife…"

My head snapped towards him, horror paralysing my whole being. As if stricken by an idea, Kirito's eyes trailed to the upper-left corner of his vision. He let out a breath of air, shaky and worried, and I realised he must be looking at my status effects on the visionary screen.

The fear was loud and clear when I saw the purple debuff «Crystallisation» under my health bar. I whimpered, both hands hiding behind them an open-mouth.

It was eating away at my life points.

"What…?"

Don't panic. Think. _Think_.

This wasn't because I'd passed out. I'd heard the voices in the hospital – I was sure of it. Kayaba Akihiko said we would be transported to hospitals, I suddenly recalled. So this must have happened during the time I was unconscious, not because of it.

My eyes flew to Kirito's name and I jumped at him when I saw the grey in his bar. The same as mine, but smaller, less noticeable.

I quickly pushed him down even when he made a sound of protest. The same sight I'd seen on the wife's arm greeted me when I peeled down the collar of his blue shirt.

Crystals, jagged and unforgiving, were growing like a fungi right under my watchful stare. I could see it multiplying, a drop of liquid materialising and then hardening into a blue-ish mineral.

Cold terror washed over me, a heavy rock hitting the bottom of my stomach.

"You can let go now," Kirito said, shyly, his HP turning grey at a snail's pace.

His voice barely brought me back to reality, and I whipped my head around in a desperate search for the NPC. We needed to finish the quest _now_. But he wasn't anywhere in sight.

Broken tables, worn-out books, scattered boxes. Nothing showed that anyone was currently _living_ here. Dread threatened to make me buckle under my weight, but I pushed myself forward. Until – There, next to a huge rock, and on a bed overgrown with plants was Grigard.

Nothing was going our way, though. That was the hard truth.

"No…" I muttered, not caring when my hands were glowing red from the multiple cuts Grigard's crystallised form was causing.

"He's… dead," Kirito said as he came closer.

"Maybe it's not him." Yeah. That must be it. We didn't know what Grigard looked like, so why should we assume it's him? Kirito frown deepened.

"Look – He's pointing at something," he said, not waiting for me before jogging to a nearby box.

He rampaged around it before finding torn papers. His eyes moved up and down, reading over the written words. I peered over Kirito's shoulder, doing a quick scan as well.

"It's… his will."

The disease took him before he could find the cure, it said… But, he'd been on the right track because he'd pushed the disease back until he just couldn't. All of his attempts at successfully keeping the debuff at bay failed. He was missing an ingredient.

Kirito peered down the box again. "Wait. There are still things on the bottom… «High Quality Potions» and «Alchemist's Diary»?"

"I can't believe this…" I said while resisting the urge to rub my temples. "At least we now have potions."

"This seems to be an Investigation quest. It'll be a matter of time before the debuff develops further." Kirito sighed. My heart sank further, and he quickly tried peddling back. "But it doesn't mean it's impossible to complete. We'll finish before anything bad happens!"

 _You're definitely not making this any better_ , I wanted to snap. Kirito didn't deserve my anger, though. He had done nothing wrong, so I refrained from showing it beyond digging my nails into my palms.

I pursed my lips, going over some papers that had fallen on the ground. They were observations, nothing more.

"The reason Grigard had failed is because of the bears outside," Kirito said, pointing at a passage in the bound notebook.

"They looked..." I shuddered. Kirito's wince was clear enough that he thought the same. Those things were tanks. Deadly and could squish us like bugs. Using just ' _strong_ ' just didn't cut it.

"Strong or not, we need their claws. The poison they secrete can dissolve anything, including the crystals." He waved the notebook, but the grimace on his face didn't disappear. "That's the theory, at least. Knowing this is a quest, I'd like to think it's going to work."

I frowned. "Can't we use any other…"

 _Thud_.

Right before my eyes, Kirito fell down on one knee. Items slipped slipped out of his fingers, and his eyes lost their focus. He looked confused, and knowing the signs on a personal level, I leapt towards him before he could slide to the ground, arms wrapping around his shoulders.

"Kirito," I breathed in rising fear. "Please tell me this isn't happening again."

His cheek was on my shoulder, body limp against me. He blinked twice in sheer stubbornness, mouth trying to form words, before his eyes finally closed.

 _Shit, shit!_

My fingers dug into his clothes, teeth grinding against each other. I shook all over while blankly staring at Kirito's slack face. Crystals were slowly forming across his forehead, but I knew the debuff wasn't the reason for his sudden unconsciousness.

He was most likely being transported. His family must've found him lying motionless, not responding to their calls for hours. Or they could've seen the news and ran to him in terror, only to realise they couldn't do anything but take him to a hospital.

While I didn't want to leave his side – waking up from _that_ had been terrifying – I couldn't sit still until then. Who knew when the debuff would engulf one of us like it did to Grigard?

"The… The map!" I remembered seeing one between the scattered notes. I lifted Kirito up, surprised I could do it so with ease. I wouldn't have dreamt of carrying a person like this in the real world.

In the end, that epiphany didn't matter. I sat him against the bed, apologising for not finding a more comfortable place for him to sleep on like he did to me. The greater potions were pocketed into my quick inventory. Hopefully I wouldn't need to use them.

It didn't take too long to find the map, and I paced in circles whilst trying to read it. I couldn't make sense of the lines, so in the end I figured it was best to align it with where I was standing.

The waterfall stood out the most on the map. It was coloured, along with the lake, and I realised Grigard had been pointing at it, and not at the box. I stood beside his outstretched hand and began walking there. Rocks littered the ground around the lake, and I took hurried but careful steps. The closer I got, the louder the falling water became.

I wasn't going to find out how swimming worked in SAO without someone to help if things went wrong.

Behind huge boulders, that were surrounding the waterfall, was a wooden ladder. I let the map disappear back to the inventory and climbed up as fast as I could. It didn't take me too long to find out why this ladder was here.

A path, leading straight towards the water. Light was shining through the end of the path, even through the water. Droplets splashed against me as I stood before it, and I glanced at Kirito, hardening my resolve.

There was no going back. I had to do this.

11


End file.
